The Use of Reason is a blog that takes a common sense view of society and its problems. I try to look at things not from the standpoint of whether the issue has an R or a D next to it, but instead from the perspective of a rational human being trying to solve problems. Oddly enough, the common sense, practical perspective usually ends up being the conservative one. If you'd like a sane, average-Joe's point of view, check out the blog.

Follow by Email

Monday, January 5, 2015

This is a photo from Moscow, where shopkeepers are putting out our flag as doormats and enterprising businesses are selling toilet paper with our flag on it for a dollar a roll. While it is an insulting sight, to be sure, it is at least comprehensible. After all, to the Russians, it is the flag of a foreign power that they feel is destroying the national economy.

If this same doormat were placed outside a Marxist bookstore, the ACLU would be the first in line to defend it. Collegiate liberals would wipe their feet as a gesture of solidarity. Michael Moore would show up and shake hands with the shopkeepers. This in spite of the fact that America's president is, at present, a communist African-American Democrat.

We can see evidence of this disdain in the media's treatment of the cases in Ferguson and New York City. Especially in the Ferguson case, the media chose to broadcast inflammatory and false information without regard for how it would affect either the community in which the events were unfolding or the nation as a whole. While this behavior is fairly typical of the media these days, in this case it is displaying more than a simple desire to create news for the sake of gaining viewers or selling newspapers.

The media, especially the left-wing outlets, have been almost ecstatic in their reporting of the still-extant racial divide in the country. After declaring Barack Obama to be the post-racial president, the media have been hard-pressed to contend, as they are wont to do, that America is still a racist nation. As I like to say, the Race Card officially expired on January 20, 2009. However, the left-wing media template is to portray the nation as a bastion of racism, a throwback to darker, less-Progressive times.

They equate disparities in outcome to bias based on race as opposed to other factors. One study pointed out that resumes with equal qualifications but with names that sounded "white" rather than "black" garnered more interview requests under the "white" name. However, this ignores the influence of culture, which in this day and age is far more important than race. An African-American named Ronald or James will not be discriminated against because of his name. Why? His name indicates being raised in a middle-class culture. In fact, nearly any employer would hire an African-American of middle-class behavior and mannerisms over a white candidate with lower-class behavior and attitudes. This makes perfect sense, since the middle-class tends to be more cooperative and polite in its dealings with people of authority.

It is, in its way, extremely racist to equate race and culture as if the two were one and the same. This implies that race determines things such as behavior, work ethic, and the likelihood of criminality. This is, in fact, a form of racial profiling that is much more damaging than any performed by law enforcement. Let's face it--two white teenagers who are wearing hoodies, sagging their pants and walking like they're angry with the world are much more likely to be stopped and checked by the police than two black teenagers in properly-fitting slacks and a shirt and tie who are smiling pleasantly as the police drive by. In fact, I personally dare any university sociology department to run an experiment using precisely those parameters and prove me wrong.

The media in this country desire to perpetuate the impression that America is anything but the land of opportunity and justice for all. By so doing, they are desecrating the symbolism of America in a fashion that is much more disgraceful than wiping their feet on an image of the flag. It is less overt, certainly, but the intent to disparage America and all it stands for is the same. At least for the Russian shopkeepers, the action is not treasonous.